FR-Villa
An Unreal Tournament Level
FR-Villa is a level created for Unreal Tournament's Blitz/Capture the Flag gamemode. Inspired by roman architecture, this map allows both casual and more advanced players to face off 5v5 against eachother.
| Genre: Multiplayer, First-Person Shooter
| Team Size: Solo
| Duration: September 2020 - November 2021
| Platform: PC
Research, Sketching and Inspiration
In order to get a general idea on which core gameplay elements to design around, I started doing research on previously released Capture the Flag levels from Unreal Tournament.
Research findings led me to sketch, find references in the real world through a photography exercise and create nodemaps to start thinking of possible layouts.
After this process, I created a level proposal showcasing my current plan of approach along with possible scenes I sketched beforehand.
It started off with a symmetrical layout, which would later turn into something more asymetrical based on player feedback during playtesting.
Sketches and 3D Models
This is a collection of some of my handdrawn sketches and 3D models (SketchUp) made during this semester of work on FR-Villa.
Inspiration Gathering
This is a collection of my inspiration sources. I mainly went outside to visit cities and towns for architecture and layout inspiration sources.
Iteration and Balancing
During the development phase I kept encountering issues concerning balance: one team would prove to have a significant advantage above the other.
How I solved this? Simple. Keep playtesting, keep iterating. I gathered my feedback through watching and recording gameplay of playtests.
I took notes of areas within the level where some players would show to have a clear (dis)advantage over the other team
and I would later make changes to the layout based on what I found to be an effective solution.
Achievements
During this project, I learned...
How to work with Unreal Engine's BSP Brushes as building blocks for level blockouts.
How to use architectural references from online and real-life sources for sketching and creating virtual scenes.
How to set up a Gym Level in order to set up metrics and test out level scenes and layouts.
How to kill my own darlings by starting over my project in order to still get the best results possible.
Interested? Download FR-Villa for Unreal Tournament on PC here!
